God Working Through Our Frustration

1082012

I write this on the heels of some major setbacks and frustrations. We know that God’s timing is perfect, and so we are eager to see him working. I’ll back up…
Many have heard this firsthand, but for those who have not had the opportunity we write this update.

A few weeks ago we wrote that our Dossier was sent to the headquarters and then off to China! And while that was our belief, that was not reality. Shortly after we sent the documents we received an email from our agency stating that both mine and Katie’s birth certificate and our marriage license was “too old” (we received new ones in January) and that our home study needed to be “state sealed” and our application letter was missing an important phrase (needing to be notarized and state sealed again).

This was frustrating on top of already being frustrated, we are now on our 3rd social worker and our 3rd contact at the main headquarters. Communication has not been ideal and things have been communicated incorrectly or not at all costing us time, and money…but mostly time.

So upon receiving this email from our agency we were really upset, but the bottom line was we HAD to comply, no matter what should have been communicated, this was the way it needed to be, and so this is what we had to do. So on Monday last week Katie and I made a day trip to Lancaster County and received our “new” marriage license, and then to Harrisburg to get a new copy of Katie’s birth certificate, and then we had to get those forms as well as 2 other documents all state sealed. The state seal is issued by the Secretary of State’s office, validating the authenticity of the document.

We arrived in Lancaster and within 10 minutes were back on the road with the marriage license. Our arrival at the Vital records office in Harrisburg was met with signs that read “no same day service” our hearts sank as our desire was to accomplish all the tasks within the same day. We spoke with the lady at the counter who was really compassionate, but her hands were tied. Praise God the manager was working in the next station and she asked why we needed the same day service, and once we mentioned our plans she said “oh for that we can get it to you in 3 hours (verses 3 days picking it up in the office or 3-4 weeks by mail). So after the delay and a test trip to the Secretary of States office we finalized our goal of all Pennsylvania documents signed and state sealed ready to head to our agency.

Saturday we received my birth certificate from Minnesota. This was another work of God as it took only 8 days from the time I mailed the application to it being returned (with another stop in the Secretary of States office). Praise God that the Government workers were extremely helpful and all desired to assist us by accomplishing their respective roles as quickly as they could.

We have sent all the documents to our agency and while we honestly still struggle with being frustrated we very much still believe that God is in control and that he has a plan for our delay.

We ask that you pray that things will leave for China soon, and that they will be able to process our paperwork in a speedy manner. This request will allow for us to move ever closer to our bringing Zi home.